HI! In a few weeks I might be able to finally afford to order a ship and get started building. I am thinking about either getting the HMS Invincible, or the SMS Moltke. I'm also looking at buying th cannons, pump, batteries, etc, etc, instead of building them due to the fact that I have no experience in ship building, or someone to help me if I screw something up. Now some of the questions that I have is, do I have to order everything at once in order to start building? Or can I order it all a little at a time? I mean do I order the ship and the hardware kit at once, then once I have some cash, get the pump and cannons? Also, with not having anyone to help me with building a ship, would the info on this site, and the instructions that come with the kits be enough for me to get the boat built? I know some of it will come down to how well you are with learning how things work and how well you are with building. As far as that goes, I LOVE putting stuff together and figuring out how things work. Especially when it involves rc electronics. TIA!!!
No you can start with just he hull if you want. cut the windows, and add the subdeck, and deck, which is just plywood you can get locally from a hobby store. Then add the shafts and rudder later as you can afford them. Of course this approach will add additional shipping costs to your final total. But it is nice to have everything as you are building, the guns come in handy, because you can put them into place, and make sure nothing else in your layout will interfer with them, or anything else.
Buy as much as you can to start with, makes building much easier. But you can always get stuff latter. The radio is not needed until the end. You can wait on the bottle and regulator, guns all higher priced items. Check out the for sale section for the How to Build a Warship DVD. Like having a veteran builder in your computer.
The hulls and kits from Strike Models do come with build instructions, and we're also reprinting a big gun warship construction manual (with some sections applicable to fast gun) on the blog section of our website (http://www.strikemodels.com). You can order many of the components separately if you would like. If you're going into Big Gun, we don't have the cannons available yet (though we do for Fast Gun), so you wouldn't be able to order that at the same time anyway. This is presuming you order from us, but since we carry both those ships, I think there's a good chance of that. =] I'd advise finding people near you and seeing if you can find a mentor or a build session to help you out.
Whichever of the two that you decide to buy, after you get the windows cut and the subdeck and deck put in, I'd go with Bob's advice on what next: putting in the guns. I used to do those further along in the build, but Bob pointed out that the guns are one of the few things that can't really be moved (they have to be in the turrets). He makes a lot of sense sometimes. So I'd do those after the hull & deck, and then sort out the rest.
Thanks for the tips. What helps is that I already have a radio with servos and receiver on hand. So that will cut the price down a little, As for as the format goes, I'm going to go with fast gun. All the stuff I'm looking at getting I will probably order from Strike Models. That dvd will no doubt come in handy too. I'll be sure to check it out. After Much flip flopping, I think I have chosen a ship. The HMS Invincible!!! If all things go well, I am thinking about ordering it sometime within the next month.
I recomend the DVD from Bob. It helped me build my first cruiser. Also don't be afraid to ask questions here. I have yet to see someone that will get down on you for the lack of experience. Good luck and happy battling. Kim
I can't tell you a lot about Small Gun but one piece of advice I got when I got in that I believe will help you is to get the C02 tank last ( the way it was explained to me was those things have a life of about 5 years till you need to replace it for safety reasons if you get them last you won't wast any of that time while it is just sitting in a box)
Thanks!!! I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Lately I have been clearing out a spot in my garage to use as a work area. I also built a nice 3x6 foot work table.
A few days ago I put the HMS Invincible and a few other things on order from Strike Models, and planning on ordering the rest of what I need by the end of next week. Now the question I have is, what type of batteries should I get? Nimhs? Nicads? I don't know a lot about rc batteries, but I do know what the difference is between them. Nicads are cheap and heavy. Nimhs are lighter and have more power but are more expensive. What would you guys recommend? Also, as kind of a side question, how long do they typically last?
Get NiMHs. NiCADs are junk. I could type a long list of why NiMHs are better, I'll let someone else. You should run two 10 amp hour packs at 6 volts, per battle. Get 4 packs so you can do two battles per day. Get at least two chargers. You can get by with the "cheap" $26 plug in and forget type. If you really want to spend lots of money get the LifPo, more power per pound. The chargers are even more money.
Actually the Lifepo4 are just about as cheap if you go with the D cell size. With the Lifepo4 you need 2 cells, to equal the 6 cells with Nimh's, at 2/3 the weight. They are good for 2000 charges vs pretty much standard Nimh's 500+ charges. As for the chargers, the ones I got were only like $23, and they can do either 3, or 6 amps according to which one you get. Of course your boat is large enough if you want to go really cheap to start with, you can just use SLA batteries. 2,7 amp would run it fine for 2 sorties.
An I-boat will do just fine (nay, better than fine) on one 6V 12AH lead-acid battery. It'll need it anyway to make weight, and they're like $15 apiece. Two will do you nicely for a long time with a cheap charger, and last years.
Is there a big performance difference between a lead-acid battery and nimh? Or is it just that the lead-acid batteries weigh more compared to the nimhs? I'd much rather go with the lead-acid batteries due to the price.
Lead Acid Advantages: Low cost, very durable Disadvantages: heavy, low life cycles, voltage drop during discharge Nicad/NiMH Advantages: relatively durable, maintains voltage during discharge, lighter than lead acid cells with comparable capacity Disadvantages: higher cost, low life cycles LiFePO4/LiFe Advantages: lightest weight per amp hour capacity, holds constant voltage during discharge, high life cycles (almost 3 to 4 times longer than SLA/NiMH) Disadvantages: expensive, requires specialized chargers
Disclaimer: I operate PbSO4, NiMH, and LiPO batteries. I do have to disagree with my friend Mike on 'low life cycle' for lead-acid batteries... they can put in a battling life of between 4 and 6 years... hardly a disadvantage I'm still using the 12V batteries that I bought for Vanguard as emergency power for my ham radio rigs, and they're years old and doing well. The voltage does drop during discharge for PbSO4 cells, but it's a relatively linear drop vice the sharp cutoff with other types of cells. To my primitive brain that's an operational difference rather than an ad/disad... do you want to see your boat slow a little over time and know that the batteries are dying, maybe better hang near shore, or have it die suddenly in the middle of the pond? It's hard to do this as shades of grey (which it is) on the internet Also, if you heavily discharge a PbSO4 cell, it can recover with a good charge. Overdischarge one of the fancier lightweight batteries and see what happens (hint: Have fireproof gloves handy). Seen way more fancy batteries explode/burn than lead-acid ones. Price for performance, lead-acid wins as long as weight isn't a factor. An I-boat has weight to spare, putting NiMH or fancier is a waste of money. Doubly so because you'll have to add more ballast.
If you only put 12 amp hours in an I-boat you can't use a stinger motor on the pump. The 20 amps it draws are too much. You'd give up some pumping capacity. You'll also have to be careful when you battle to not run around too much or you will slow down, then you will sink. If you go with NiMHs you can fit 20 amps in the ship and not have those problems. Like many things in life higher cost gets you better stuff. I'm very cheap, but I know now not to cheap out on boat stuff. Better to buy the good stuff and have a ship that works well then have cheap junk and get sunk a lot.
Admittedly, SLA batteries can hang in there for a long time .. years. But as they age, the ability to carry a voltage under load decreases. So lets say there is a 5 year old SLA in a ship. When the ship puts a load on that 5 year old battery, the voltage is going to drop further than a newer SLA's voltage under the same load. Effectively, a 5 year old SLA can be "dead" because of the low voltage under load degradation ... even if the battery reads full voltage without a load. So it is cost vs performance. A low cost SLA can last a long time with little maintenance. A higher cost LiFE battery will last thousands of cycles and still hold 75 - 80% of it's capacity and voltage under load. In the long run, you can keep the performance of a LiFE battery with the long life of a SLA ... but it'll cost ya! Heh
